Incentive Centered DesignIn 2001, the STIET (Socio-Technical Infrastructure for Electronic Transactions) Doctoral Research and Training Program received a $3.5+ million IGERT grant from NSF to fund doctoral fellowships and a multidisciplinary program in the University of Michigan School of Information, School of Engineering, School of Business and Department of Economics. The STIET 1 grant funded 35 one- or two-year fellows over the next six years and initiated a weekly seminar series, twice yearly research workshops, and research resulting in over 90 student published articles in peer-reviewed journals, conferences and workshops. It is especially notable that nearly all of our students have had at least one peer-reviewed publication by the end of the second year of their PhD studies.

Events, ENQA (Qualité de l'ESR en Europe)If you are interested in hosting an ENQA event, please see the Guidance. 9th ENQA Training of Agency Reviewers (FULL) The 9th ENQA Training of Agency Reviewers will take place on 12-13 May 2014 in Bern, Switzerland. The training session is organised by ENQA and hosted by the Swiss Center of Accreditation and Quality Assurance in Higher Education (OAQ).Physics Simulations and ArtworkHere is a 3D view of a hydrogren atom in the 4f state. The left image was made in C++ using a technique described by Krzysztof Marczak to make it volumetric like a cloud of smoke. The right image was made in Mathematica by adding 2D cross-sectional layers. The animations were made in POV-Ray using DF3 density files.

Space Exploration SystemsDawn of a Dream Meet the Dream Chaser® – a winged, lifting-body spacecraft that provides a flexible, credible, affordable solution for ISS crew transportation and a viable path to the future of human space flight operations for NASA, international and commercial space applications. Dream Chaser is the product of a dynamic collaboration among well-known, well-established industry leaders, experts and universities. SNC is currently working with NASA's Commercial Crew Program to develop and configure Dream Chaser for International Space Station servicing. Developed under our Space Exploration Systems Product Line, we are leveraging our long history and unrivaled record of success in developing innovative space technology and integrated systems. We are changing how space is accessed, explored and utilized through commercial means.

Chinese Satellite Is One Giant Step for the Quantum InternetCai Yang/Xinhua via ZUMA Wire China’s 600-kilogram quantum satellite contains a crystal that produces entangled photons. China is poised to launch the world’s first satellite designed to do quantum experiments. A fleet of quantum-enabled craft is likely to follow. First up could be more Chinese satellites, which will together create a super-secure communications network, potentially linking people anywhere in the world.This tiny box anonymises all your online actionsNo tool in existence protects your anonymity on the Web better than the software Tor, which encrypts Internet traffic and bounces it through random computers around the world. But for guarding anything other than Web browsing, Tor has required a mixture of finicky technical setup and software tweaks. Now routing all your traffic through Tor may be as simple as putting a portable hardware condom on your ethernet cable.

On the Viability of Conspiratorial BeliefsAbstract Conspiratorial ideation is the tendency of individuals to believe that events and power relations are secretly manipulated by certain clandestine groups and organisations. Many of these ostensibly explanatory conjectures are non-falsifiable, lacking in evidence or demonstrably false, yet public acceptance remains high.ConstellationExactly 1week to "Space Race - Yuri's Night 2014: Hunting Comets!" team challenge on BoincStats Hello everyone, in exactly one week the "Space Race - Yuri's Night 2014: Hunting Comets!" team challenge on BoincStats will start. The challenge will support our Comet Trails simulation by the Dust Team of the Insitute of Space Systems (IRS) at University of Stuttgart. Comet Trails is their project for the Interplanetary Meteoroid Environment for eXploration (IMEX) initiative by the European Space Agency (ESA).